Albania, Serbia Clash Over Organ Trafficking Allegations
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By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
TIRANA, Albania - Earlier this week Albania refused to help visiting Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic further investigate claims of abduction and organ trafficking in northern Albania. It has been alleged that after the end of the war in Kosovo, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted around 300 Serbs in the Kosovo region and moved them to Albania, at which point they disappeared. Albanian Prosecutor-General Ina Rama said Albania would only assist prosecutors from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or other international investigation. Serbia now plans to take its evidence to the Council of Europe and its specially appointed rapporteur for the allegations, Dicky Marty.
Yellow_house The organ trafficking allegations became internationally known after the publication of Carla Del Ponte’s book, The Hunt. In her book, she reports that “according to reliable information” the KLA took around 300 prisoners into northern Albania. About 50 of the prisoners were separated and taken to a “yellow house” in Rribe (near Burrel) where their organs were removed in a makeshift operating room on the ground floor. The organs were then taken to the Tirana airport and flown to paying customers in other countries.
Charges were never brought and the case was dropped for a number of reasons,including that the ICTY mandate did not cover crimes committed after the war ended and the UN investigating team did not find enough evidence for an indictment. The owners of the house, which has been repainted white, reported that the UN investigators came to their house in 2004. Sources also report that the UN uncovered syringes, bandages, empty infusion bottles and muscle relaxant solutions in a riverbed behind the house, as well as blood which was never determined to be human. Witnesses, who either disappeared in protection programs or have since stopped talking, claimed the bodies were buried under Albanian names in a local cemetery. Attempts to exhume parts of the cemetery were thwarted by local residents.
Albania’s refusal to assist Vukcevic was made public after his meeting with Rama on Monday. He had requested that Albanian authorities allow him access to witnesses and names of doctors and medical personnel from Kosovo who worked in Albania.
The allegations are politically charged. It is well-known that Albania supported the KLA in Kosovo. Serbian media (B92) has also reported that it has seen documents linking Albanian PM Sali Berisha and former Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj to the destruction of documents reporting on those abducted. Serbia calls Albania’s refusal to assist “political,” and attributes the political pressure to Kosovo. Albania claims that it can only act within the bounds of its own laws.
For more information, please see:
Balkan Insight - Serbia Seeks European Help in Organs Case - 30 October 2008
AP - Serbia scolds Albania over organ trafficking probe - 29 October 2008
B92 - UNSC to hear about organ trafficking - 29 October 2008
B92 - New allegations in organ trafficking case - 28 October 2008
Der Spiegel - Family Denies Organ Harvesting Allegations - 22 September 2008
Tags: albania, serbia, kla organ traficking,
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